Hunters and trappers in Illinois may be able to hunt bobcats for the first time in more than 40 years starting this fall.

The House on Thursday voted 91-20 to allow the Department of Natural Resources to manage a hunting and trapping season that would take place sometime between Nov. 1 and Feb. 15 of each year.

Morrisonville Republican Rep. Wayne Rosenthal sponsored the bill in the House. He said the legislation was the product of an initiative by the Illinois Trappers Association.

“Bobcats are predators,” Rosenthal said. “And what this bill does is allow the DNR to manage bobcats just like they manage any other wildlife species and keep the whole population in balance.”

Dwindling numbers of the species forced the state to outlaw bobcat hunting in 1972. By 1977, they were on the list of threatened species.

But they’re coming back. According to DNR spokesman Chris Young, legal protection and habitat restoration over the past 40 years have helped the species rebound to a current estimated population of between 3,000 and 5,000 statewide.

Rosenthal said the DNR estimates the population’s growth rate at between 4 percent and 9 percent each year.

According to Young, while bobcats can be found anywhere in the state, they’re most common in southern and western Illinois, and catching a glimpse of one is rare because they’re nocturnal.

Bobcats aren’t the only formerly endangered wildlife species that have rebounded thanks to DNR initiatives.

“There were an awful lot of species that were eliminated in the state in the early 1800s,” Young said. “We’ve been meticulously bringing these species back.”

River otters are one such success story. Once endangered, river otter populations have since rebounded to the point that DNR last year lifted the ban on trapping them.

White-tailed deer are another. Young said Illinois’ favorite big game was once so endangered that hunters weren’t allowed to take them for over half a century. He said the first modern deer season in the state was in 1957.

Rosenthal wasn’t worried about bobcats becoming endangered again with the lifting of hunting bans.

“They’ve been very successful,” he said of DNR’s efforts to manage wildlife. “You look at deer, you look at wild turkeys, you look at the river otter. They’re the experts on managing the wildlife species, and this (bill) allows them to do that.”

Hunters and trappers would be limited to one permit per year and one bobcat per permit under rules set by DNR. Young said any pelts taken must be tagged according to federal law.

He said DNR had not decided yet when the 2014-2015 bobcat season would be set.